Jesus was received poorly in his hometown of Nazareth. After the holy spirit descended on him, he returned to Nazareth, but the people there rejected him and were ready to throw him off a cliff to his death. “Truly I tell you,” he said to them,, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.”

So the remaining three years or so of his ministry and life were spent on the road preaching, with the center of his travels at Capernaum, a town on the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee.

We visited three sites not far from Capernaum and then Capernaum itself this morning:

• Mount of the Beatitudes where Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount that contains the eight Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” and so on. Pastor Charlie recited the entire Sermon on the Mount from memory – very impressive delivery. 

Actually, the evidence is that the real site of the Sermon was further down the mountain where the remains of an early church can be seen. The Franciscan Order from Italy chose the site uphill as being more in keeping with the idea of a “mount” with picturesque views. Besides, there is no good parking spot for tour buses at the downhill church site. And believe me, there are a lot of buses to park at these sites.

• The Church of the Multiplication where tradition has it, Jesus instructed his disciples to feed the 5,000 men (and their women and children) with 5 loaves and two fishes. This church was established by the Benedictines from Germany.
• The Chapel of the Primacy, another Franciscan church, where tradition has it, Peter professed his devotion to the risen Christ three times. “Peter, do you love me?” “You know I do Lord.” “Then feed my sheep.” Peter, perhaps a bit dense, didn’t understand why the Risen Christ asked him the same question three times in a row. It was Jesus’s way of confirming that Peter had the responsibility to be the rock on which his church would be built.

These three sites were mentioned by a woman named Egaria, a traveler from Spain who wrote a 16-page letter to the girls back home detailing her travels through this region around 380 CE. She mentions three churches “built on rocks,” including the downhill church of the Sermon on the Mount.

Interestingly, the two Franciscan churches and the Benedictine church were established in 1932. Benito Mousseline donated money to the Church of the Beatitudes. Given the Holocaust that occurred ten years later, it is somehow ironic that Italians and Germans were building Christian churches in the Holy Land. Abraham, our guide, says there was no political motive behind these developments.

The final stop of the morning was at Capernaum, where yet another Franciscan church has been built over the remains of what is most probably the home of Peter. Graffiti markings in the ruins identify Peter and Jesus by name. Nearby are the remains of two temples, one dating from the fourth century AD built on top of another one dating from the first century AD and hence probably within the lifetime of Jesus. Of all the places we’ve visited, this is the one where it we can say with certainty that Jesus was actually present at THIS spot, not somewhere near this spot.

Lunch was at a restaurant that served loaves of bread with humas and a whole fish – head, tail and gills. Loaves and fishes, get it? I asked the lady what kind of fish we were being served. “Genuine Galilee Tilapia, not from Chins.” It wasn’t all that bad, but the bread was the real winner.

The restaurant offers boat rides on the Sea of Galilee so all 75 of us set off for an hour. They motored out offshore a ways and cut the motor. The boat drifted in the light breeze. Temperature, as always: 100 give or take. We sang songs and Pastor Charlie gave a message about walking on water: “keep your eyes on Jesus and you won’t sink,” as Peter learned when he tried to walk across the sea to Jesus.

Next, a short bus ride to the Yardenit Baptismal Site, a place on the Jordan River just south of its exit from the Sea of Galilee. For $15 you get a robe, see-through when wet, and a towel to dry off. We each entered the Jordan where Pastor Charlie gave almost all of us, those who chose to do so, a second baptism by total emersion. It was kind of neat for Judy and I to do it together. The water was warm but the nibbling minnows made us think we were back at Onawa.

It reminded me of the clear memory of my baptism at age 12 or so at College Baptist Church. The church had a baptismal behind the alter – probably four feet deep. Reverend Hendershot was an avid fly fisherman and wore his hip waders when he gave us our dunkings. 

This is not the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. That’s near Jericho but the Jordan at that point is murky and full of bullrushes and not a pleasant place to get wet. Yardenit is on the same Jordan River and is much more pleasant.

I didn’t take so many pictures today, thank goodness. The sites we visited were constrained and the tourists were thick as black flies at Onawa on Memorial Day. And you know what? One pile of 2,000-year-old ruins looks pretty much like all the others. It’s the story of what happened (or might have happened) that makes each place special.

Now we’re showered up and ready to go out on the town for dinner. We’ll see what that brings.

Dinner turned out to be good tour bus food: a fixed menu that featured pretty good salmon, rice and fries plus side dishes. OK, about what you’d expect. But then the restaurant turned up a song mix starting with Let’s Do the Twist and added in Abba, YMCA, Latin and a whole bunch more. We didn’t get back until 10 PM, which is pretty late considering we’re on the bus at 8 AM.